


I Used To

by catchmeinmydreams



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Cuddling, Deleted Scene, Fluff, Hurt Mandy, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Physical Abuse, Protective Ian, Protective Mickey, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:28:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8440318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catchmeinmydreams/pseuds/catchmeinmydreams
Summary: After Mickey walks on Mandy cleaning up Kenyatta's handy work at the end of 4x09. How Mickey takes care of her and how him and Ian take care of each other.





	

Mickey let’s out a shaky breath. Then another. Then another, rapid but composes himself quickly as one of the whores catches his eye. The baby, _his_ baby still crying.

“The fuck you looking at?”

She doesn’t understand him, not one word. She just shrugs and averts her eyes to his crying child. Her hand on his little chest as he crying begins to disperse.

He turns back to the door, fist raised up and a few inches before the hard surface. He inhales sharply and speaks as his fist comes in contact with the door.

“Mandy!” He calls, “Mandy.” He repeats but much softer.

“Fuck off!” She yells from behind the door.

Mickey turns sharply on his heel and paces before returning back to the door. He pressed closer into the wood and knocked again, “Mands, c’mon. Lemme fucking take a look.”

Mandy lets him in a few long seconds later; she pulls the door open and leaves it ajar. He steps in slowly and shuts the door behind him, getting a closer look. Her whole left eye was swollen shut. A streak of blood was down her cheek. Her lower lip was busted too and there was blood from then down her chin. There was blood all over the sink too and on the cloth.

Mickey sighs, “Jesus, we’ve handled blood before, Mands. How many fucking times you help sew me, Iggy, and Collin up? C’mon.” He wasn't saying it to be mean, Mandy understands. He was saying it as a defense mechanism-to make the mood in the room not as bad. It was still pretty bad but Mandy knew her brother had the best intentions right now to help her. 

He averts his eyes when he says this to her.

“Guess I’m getting rusty.” Her throat is hoarse, like she’s holding in tears.

Mickey rubs a hand over his face, “Sit down.”

She obeys and sits herself on the toilet. He takes the rag she was using and turns on the sink, rinsing it out. Then he waited a few seconds for the water to get ice cold. He rung it out again and slowly dabbed it on her eye.

She winced in pain.

 “Fuck.” He hissed.

“It’s not that bad.” She defended.

“You really think so?” Mickey asked, “What happened to coming to me? You used to come to me and Iggy and Collin about this.”

Mickey was assuming Kenyatta had done this before, he was. He actually wasn’t sure. He used to be so sure. Any boy Mandy every brought home going up he would make sure they were good, that they wouldn’t hurt her. And if they did he would beat them. He never really had to worry much with Lip. Yeah Lip, was a first rate jackass but he was a Gallagher who wouldn’t hurt Mandy physically.

But her breakup with Lip hit harder than he thought. He never bothered to ask about it or care much about it. He’s been so busy worrying about Ian, he hadn’t been looking out. Not like he used to.

“This was the first time.” She tries to say something else as Mickey dabs at her eye again but the wince she lets out turns into a small sob.

“You think that’ll be the last?” Mickey asks her.

She doesn’t respond, ducking her head. Mickey sighs scratching his head with is free hand, “Okay, bleeding has mostly stopped. Clean up your face but avoid the eye and lip, everything around it. Then rinse out the sink, pack a bag. Okay?”

Mandy looks up, visibly holding back crying.

“Hurry up, before he fucking comes back.”

Mandy nods and stands at the sink, proceeding to clean up the blood. Mickey walks into the kitchen and takes out his phone. It’s early evening and Ian’s at work but he calls anyway.

_“Mick, just about to go on my shift. Everything good?  Debbie or Fiona should be at home.”_

_“No, uh, yeah I don’t-not worried about that. Can Mandy come?”_

_“Yeah…sure. I’ll be home late.”_

_“Okay, see you then, man.”_

_Xoxo_

When Ian gets home it’s 3 am and his bedroom door is slightly ajar. Mickey is sitting up in the corner using his phone to flip through magazines. Ian places his bag down on the ground just as Mickey grabs his attention.

“Hey!” He hisses, placing a finger to his lips and pointing at the bed. In peers over and up in Lip’s bunk to see Mandy. But something is off and he peers closer noticing her swollen eye. He makes a noise and suddenly is being pulled out of the room.

“It’s okay!” Mickey states, angrily. “I took care of it, I got her out. Now she’s here.”

“You beat the shit out of him? We could drug him, I can get my hands on some pretty good drugs and-“

“Hey!” Mickey hisses. He places his hand on Ian’s arm, “Hey, she’s fine. I don’t know where he is. I was headed to your house when I found her. Didn’t want to deal with that shit, the baby was home with one of the illiterate whores. She’s somewhere safe and that’s all that matters.”

Ian releases a breath he’s been holding but he’s still angry and Mickey rubs at his arm, “It’s okay, man. She iced that shit when we got here, swelling will be bad but it’ll go down.  C’mon let’s go to bed.”

Mickey’s makeshift mattress is still on the ground but instead of heading back down there he goes back into the corner, against the wall. Ian follows him with a shocked look over his face. Too tired and still processing Mandy he takes off his shirt and pants and climbs into bed. Mickey is facing the wall as Ian puts his arm around him.

Mickey doesn’t pull away just remains still.

“We haven’t been as close as we used to be. I haven’t been paying attention.”  Ian states.

“Man, we’ve all been busy. People drift, it happens.” Mickey presses his body closer into Ian’s and Ian tightens his grip around Mickey.

“Just go to sleep, man. She’s safe. I got her out, she’s safe.”

Ian presses his face into the crook of Mickey’s neck. It should feel more uncomfortable and Ian should be more excited. He should be smiling and Mickey should be smirking and telling him to shut up. Except its 3 o’clock in the morning and Mandy is bruised in the bed above them.  Their bodies pressed against each other feels familiar, long awaited, and comfortable.

Ian listens to Mickey’s breathing until it becomes rhythmic and the tension the shorter man was holding in leaves his body as he falls into a deep sleep. Ian breathes him in, tracing his fingers on his knuckles. From behind him he can hear Mandy breathing too.

He wants to sleep. He’s exhausted but he’s so awake at the same time. He stays wrapped up behind Mickey for two hours, trying to sleep but failing. At a little past 5 he gets up and walks over to Mandy. She’s curled up under the covers but her arms on top of them, revealing one of Lip’s long sleeved shirts.

He reaches over and lets his fingertips brush against her forehead, “Sorry.” He mutters, quietly.

He walks out of the room, grabbing his grey sweatpants and a shirt from a pile on the floor. He runs until the thought of Mandy bleeding and beaten; the thought of Mickey’s pained face is pushed from his mind and distracted by a beautiful sunrise.

Ian swallows back tears as he grins up at the pink sky.

Xoxo

That day Mandy goes back with Kenyatta, Ian almost kills him while grabbing Mandy in the process. Frank almost dies. It makes Ian tired for the first night in a long while. Emotionally tired. Like his brain couldn’t find any more distractions until he got some sleep.

Mickey was already on his bed flipping through a gun magazine when Ian came over. He stripped off his jacket and lay next to Mickey. It’s early but he’s exhausted. He doesn’t even have work tonight because calling your boss and telling them your dad is dying is a good excuse.

“Frank’s getting a liver transplant.”

Mickey grunts in response as Ian curls up, exhausted.

“Mandy went back to him.” Ian says, voice fading.

“Yeah, she did.”

On the verge of sleep he feels Mickey scoot down close and wrap an arm around him. Ian curls into him, trying to focus on images of the sunrise he took yesterday. He felt like if he cried he wouldn’t be able to stop, like something inside of him was waiting to burst.

“Mick.” Ian says.

“Go to sleep. You’re tired.”

He is. He is so fucking tired. He inahles Mickey’s scent and is overpowered by a calm sensation that takes him to sleep. Meanwhile Mickey falls asleep too, feeling safe and secure with Ian pressed up against him.

Mandy had been dodging his calls all day. It was her life; she could do whatever she wanted. He couldn’t protect her if she didn’t want to be protected.

He was pulled from his thoughts by Ian’s sleepy voice, “Hey Mick, we’re cuddling.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Mickey said with a smile, “You’re ruining it.”

“Liar.”

The reality was that some things in life couldn’t be helped. Mickey couldn’t help Mandy but Ian could help him come to terms with that. And not everything emotionally crippling could be dealt with long term but sometimes, like right now things like memories of sunrises and the smell of Mickey could make everything okay, at least for a little while. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in about a half hour. I've been rewatching season 4 clips and I've been meaning to write something for this. I think Mickey seeing Mandy like that really broke him and there must have been a whole conversation of how she even got to Ian's in the first place since Mandy slammed the door in Mickey's face. I wanted that scene so I created it and then my muse got carried away. 
> 
> I also touched on Ian pre diagnoses and made connections to him being bi-polar as we saw throughout the season.


End file.
